Give yourself permission...

to put aside the to-do list.

to truly enjoy a game of tickle monster.

to use paper plates.

to not do it all.

to not feel bad about not doing it all.

to hire help.

There are a million blog posts about these permissions that we should give ourselves. Most of them tell you what you should give yourself permission to do/not do, but don't offer many solutions on how to do/not do that. I'm here to offer you a solution: me.

I saw a post not long ago that said we should give ourselves permission to not feel like we have to cook a gourmet, organic, unprocessed, kid-friendly meal every night of the week. I'm totally on board with that. I'm also on board with the "not feeling guilty about that" part of it, but that's easier said than done. What if you could feed your family a homemade, organic, unprocessed, kid-friendly meal most of the time and not have to cook it?

You hire McDonald's to cook for your family how many nights per week? What casual dining restaurants to you frequent, paying them to feed your family? Some of these occasions are celebrations, but by-and-large, most of these occasions are because of lack of energy, lack of planning or lack of time.

Hire me. Give me permission to do the planning, to use my energy and spend my time to cook your family what you really want to feed them and what they really want to eat. Give me permission to come into your home, to cook your meals, to clean. your. kitchen.

You don't have to use my meal service for an every night solution. We can come up with a plan for fresh and/or frozen meals to fill in the gaps for when you haven't had the focus to plan, the energy to shop, or the time to cook. I know what you're thinking, but you can absolutely afford a personal chef. How much is dinner for your family at McDonald's? My family of four will easily cost $25, and double that if we take them to a decent sit-down dinner. Add appetizers and soft drinks (or kids that don't eat from the kids menu anymore) and you've racked up a $100 food bill for ONE DINNER. I have meal services that range from $5-$20/serving. My 5 meal/4 servings meal plan costs just $100 for the groceries. The rest of my fee covers the meal planning, the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning. of. your. kitchen.

Take notice in the next month of how much time you spend meal planning & grocery shopping. How much money do you spend at the grocery store? How much frustration did you endure with the toddler asking for every brightly colored package and the tween asking, "Are we done yet? Can we go now?" (insert the obligatory eye roll) How many meals do you cook with that food you paid/went through so much to get? How much money do you spend eating out? How much food do you throw away?

I put every ounce of effort into crafting fresh meals, with love...love for real food, love for your family, love for your health, well-being and happiness.

Once we go over your family's taste preferences, I'll come up with a menu that makes everyone happy. And as an added bonus, my friends and family will attest that I have vastly expanded their palette. You may find that your kids (and you!) aren't so picky after all. It is truly a joy for me to feed people good, real food. And taking away the "mom guilt," that is the homemade chocolate icing on the not-from-a-box cake!

So give yourself permission to not do it all. You and your family need healthy food, meals together and time to do so many other things you'd rather be doing. I'm in the kitchen so you don't have to be!